The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

Wael Ghonim gets book deal for 'Revolution 2.0'

May 9, 2011 | 12:57
pm

Wael Ghonim, the former Google executive and Egyptian revolutionary, coined the phrase "revolution 2.0," and now he's got a deal to write a book with that name.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has bought the rights to publish Ghonim's upcoming book "Revolution 2.0," which will tell "the inside story of the Egyptian revolution and the lessons of the Arab Spring, as told by the 30-year-old former Google executive who was one of the people that mobilized protesters through technology and social media," the New York publisher said in a statement.

Ghonim is credited with being one of the first organizers of the protests that led to the Egyptian revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak's 30-year reign and has so far left the military in power, with democratic elections to come.

Then working as Google's head of marketing in the Middle East and North Africa, Ghonim was an owner of the "We Are All Khaled Saied" Facebook page that mobilized young Egyptians to take to the streets against Mubarak's government. He was captured and released by the Egyptian government during the protests, becoming a worldwide face of the uprising.

The book is set to be released Jan. 25, the one-year anniversary of the start of the Egyptian revolution.

"The implications of Wael's story reach far beyond the Middle East and even beyond politics," said Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Bruce Nichols, who will edit Ghonim's book. "How Wael helped nurture a mass movement is one of the great stories of our time, with lessons for anyone who seeks to make change anywhere on earth using technology."

Ghonim is on an extended leave of absence from Google to build a technology-focused nongovernmental organization to fight poverty and improve education.

He has been named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people and will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this month.

Ghonim is writing the book in Arabic. The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt release will be an English translation.